ReadWrite - retailhttp://readwrite.com/tag/retail
enCopyright 2015 Wearable World Inc.http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssTue, 31 Mar 2015 13:47:46 -0700Here's Why Apple Really Should Build Standalone Apple Watch Stores<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Move over, Rolex. According to <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/02/20/apple-watch-dedicated-retail-stores">reports by the French media late last week</a>, Apple may be taking a page from your playbook by building dedicated stores for its upcoming Apple Watch. </p><p>The company has not breathed a word of this, of course, but there's reason to believe it may be true. But those reasons may be more than skin deep. The popular narrative chalks this up to Apple copying jewelry or luxury goods makers, and it’s tempting to say Apple just wants to give its “precious” an equally precious retail environment. </p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/02/20/apple-watch-dedicated-retail-stores">The Apple Watch Could Get Its Own Dedicated Store</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>But there are more pragmatic reasons than that—some of which may offer lessons to other would-be smartwatch makers.</p><h2>How Precious Can You Get?</h2><div tml-image="ci01c7e70ad0012a83" tml-image-caption="From Apple's Apple Watch Edition line, which features sapphire glass and 18 karat gold." tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a1.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI4MzI1MTQ3MjIzNDAzMTM5.jpg" /><figcaption>From Apple's Apple Watch Edition line, which features sapphire glass and 18 karat gold.</figcaption></figure></div><p>If the new device was a phone, it would sit out in the open at Apple Stores. The other jewels in Apple's crown, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, are displayed just this way, tethered by thin cables and caked in the thick smudges that only thousands of shoppers could leave behind. They line up like good little soldiers alongside the latest iPads, iPod touches and MacBook Airs.</p><p>The company may not want the Apple Watch to suffer that indignity. After all, it has hifalutin ambitions for the product. </p><div tml-image="ci01bfe83b8001efe2" tml-image-caption="Apple Watches will also be available for aluminum and stainless steel versions." tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,w_620/MTI2MDc0NjU2MDMyNTkzMTcw.png" /><figcaption>Apple Watches will also be available for aluminum and stainless steel versions.</figcaption></figure></div><p>Apple's profound power of denial has it refusing to call the wrist gadget—which will link to iPhones and work with apps—something as mundane as a smartwatch. Last September, the company went out of its way to invite fashion journalists and other tastemakers to its press announcement. <em>Vogue China</em> editors saw the watch in person before many American tech reporters did, <a href="http://www.businessoffashion.com/2014/10/first-look-apple-watch-makes-fashion-editorial-debut-cover-vogue-china.html">putting the gadget on its cover</a>. Now <em>Self</em> bookends the fashion push as the <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/19/8068467/apple-watch-first-us-magazine-cover-self">first U.S. magazine to do the same</a>. </p><p>How glamorous. So if Apple is designing whole stores around the smartwatch—and it is a smartwatch, no matter what Apple says—it seems rather fitting. The company would give its wrist device some space to breath and glass display cases to highlight the beauty. All the better to add to the product’s allure. </p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/02/17/apple-orders-5m-apple-watch">Apple Bets Big On Its Smartwatch, Though Killer Apps May Be Missing In Action</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>But Apple may have another motivation for constructing special brick-and-mortar stores: theft protection. Apple Stores from <a href="http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/05/09/car-smashes-into-apple-store-on-berkeleys-4th-street/">California</a> to <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2014/07/29/southpoint-apple-store-robbery/">North Carolina</a> to <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-04-06-1Aapplerobbery06_ST_N.htm">many other parts of the U.S.</a> and abroad, including <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413825,00.asp">Paris</a>, have seen robberies, smash-and-grabs and even thefts enabled by <a href="http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/05/09/car-smashes-into-apple-store-on-berkeleys-4th-street/">barreling a car into an Apple storefront</a>. Former NBA basketball player Rex Chapman alone <a href="http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24716781/rex-chapman-arrested-for-alleged-shoplifting-at-apple-store">made off with $14,000</a>, and Apple’s own employees <a href="http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-08-13/news/fl-lauderdale-iphone-accused-thieves-20140813_1_iphones-apple-southwest-ranches">apparently can’t resist joining in on the illicit activity</a>.</p><p>Apple downplays the issue, and it doesn’t disclose figures attached to theft, but the sums are likely considerable. (The company has hundreds of stores worldwide, with <a href="https://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/">more than 250 in the U.S. alone</a>.) A few Apple Store employees in the Bay Area have told me their locations see frequent thefts. Some are brazen snatching incidents, others skew toward subtle cons like Rex Chapman’s—with perpetrators waltzing out the door after faking an Easy Pay self-checkout transaction. </p><p>The addition of even smaller devices—worth between $350 to <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/11/10/apple-watch-price-popsugartech">as much as $5,000</a>—would surely heighten the temptation. </p><div tml-image="ci01c2227ca00199de" tml-image-caption="Apple Watch prices may top out at $5,000, but it's still nothing compared to this diamond-crusted variation by Mervis Diamond Importers, which will cost $30,000." tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a3.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,w_620/MTI2NzAxNjU3MTAxNzU4NDM0.png" /><figcaption>Apple Watch prices may top out at $5,000, but it's still nothing compared to this diamond-crusted variation by Mervis Diamond Importers, which will cost $30,000.</figcaption></figure></div><p>Not that Apple Watches will be entirely MIA from current stores. More likely, the base models will sit out in those display tables, while premium versions will probably <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/31/apple-stores-to-be-outfitted-with-safes-to-house-gold-apple-watches/">get stashed in backroom vaults</a>. But that’s hardly a great way to showcase 18 karat-gold premium devices. </p><p>A jewelry store-style setting, presumably equipped with cameras, alarms and tightened security, would allow the company to feature all models of its Apple Watch in a grander—and more guarded—setting.</p><h2>Why Every Smartwatch Maker Should Root For Apple</h2><div tml-image="ci01c74ca7e001efe2" tml-image-caption="LG Urbane smartwatch" tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI4MTU1Mzk3MjMxMDEzODU4.jpg" /><figcaption>LG Urbane smartwatch</figcaption></figure></div><p>New purpose-built retail locations would allow Apple to give the public hands-on time without magnifying the shoplifting temptation in its regular stores. That hands-on time is crucial. </p><p>The last time Apple debuted a category-defining device was the iPad's roll-out in 2010. Ahead of that launch, naysayers just couldn’t see the point of what some called “<a href="http://blog.gsmarena.com/apple-ipad-overview-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/">a vastly oversized iPod touch</a>.” But the extra space allowed developers to rethink their user interfaces and create more immersive experiences that just weren’t possible on smaller displays.</p><p>In other words, you had to actually use it to really get it. The same may well be true of the Apple Watch.</p><div tml-image="ci01c07ec2f00199de" tml-image-caption="Samsung Gear S is basically the tablet or &quot;phablet&quot; of smartwatches." tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI2MjQwMTY0NDc2NDA1Nzcw.jpg" /><figcaption>Samsung Gear S is basically the tablet or "phablet" of smartwatches.</figcaption></figure></div><p>The iPad ultimately won many of the critics over, with some even <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/05/iwasnt-but-now-iam-an-ipad-saga/">publicly admitting their error</a>. Its soaring sales prompted many of major smartphone makers to also become tablet makers. Though sales of its big-screen mobile device have <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/01/27/apple-iphone-6-booms-ipad-still-cratering">dropped lately</a>, the launch experience was valuable for Apple—particularly now as it prepares to unleash its smallest-screen gadget. </p><p>Apple likely noticed some interesting customer behavior in its existing stores: Some people need to hold the devices in their hands before they can fall in love with them. That may be even truer for unproven gadgets.</p><p>That’s one reason why, even though brick-and-mortar locations seem so very antiquated in these digital times, they’ve become surprisingly de rigueur among tech companies as varied as Amazon, eBay, Microsoft and Samsung. Apple has mastered its grip on physical retail better than most, and now it may be poised to do it once again, all for a single product. </p><div tml-image="ci01bf437570019512" tml-image-caption="" tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI1ODkzNDg0NjQ4NDYwMjU4.jpg" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div><p>A lot could be riding on it. While the public seems intrigued by smartwatches, many still haven’t yet hopped on the bandwagon. Perhaps, like with iPads, they need to experience them first.</p><p>That can be tougher than it seems. When the Asus ZenWatch was <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/11/11/lg-g-watch-r-asus-zenwatch-android-wear-smartwatch-pretty-geeky">supposed to launch at Best Buy last November</a>, I headed to my local outpost to check it out on day one. The employees had no idea what I was talking about, and couldn't even find the device in their inventory database. </p><p>If Apple is building Watch Stores, it may be in part because the company wants to give its first real wearable its biggest chance of success. If it works, the tech giant might find itself popularizing a nascent product category once again and raising the profile of a whole industry. </p><p>Success should be easy to gauge. We'll just have to look out for jewelry store-like retail spaces with customers lined up all the way down the block. </p><p><em>Device photos courtesy of their respective manufacturers</em></p>And why competitors should root for them to succeed.http://readwrite.com/2015/02/25/apple-watch-dedicated-stores-hands-on-theft
http://readwrite.com/2015/02/25/apple-watch-dedicated-stores-hands-on-theftWearWed, 25 Feb 2015 09:05:08 -0800Adriana LeeHow Apple's New App-Refund Policy Could Hurt Developers<!-- tml-version="2" --><div tml-image="ci01c3482780019512" tml-image-caption="" tml-bad-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI3MDI0NTQ3OTExMTgyOTc5.jpg" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div><p>European Apple users got a holiday bonus recently: Apple now offers a new <a href="http://www.ifun.de/apple-raeumt-14-taegiges-widerrufsrecht-fuer-itunes-kaeufe-ein-71107/">two-week return policy</a> for iTunes, App Store and iBooks customers in the U.K., Germany, Italy, France and other countries in the European Union.</p><p>Apple's previous policy restricted refunds to a narrow set of circumstances where the user might claim they never got the app in question—before “delivery of the product has started.” Apple support reps could make exceptions when glitches or busy servers made downloading impossible, but people had to contact them first. </p><p>Now residents in many European countries won’t have to deal with that hassle. But their win could be a thorny issue for app developers. </p><h2><strong>European Users May Cheer, But Not All App Makers Will </strong></h2><div tml-image="ci01c348683001efe2" tml-image-caption="" tml-bad-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a1.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,w_620/MTI3MDI0ODI2Mjc4NzkxMTc4.png" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div><p>The official change in policy likely stems from an E.U. mandate last June that requires retailers to provide a 14-day right of cancellation or return period. Likewise, the new terms expand the review period to 14 days, within which users can get a refund, no questions asked.</p><blockquote tml-bad-render-layout="inline"><p>Right of cancellation: If you choose to cancel your order, you may do so within 14 days from when you received your receipt without giving any reason, except iTunes Gifts which cannot be refunded once you have redeemed the code.</p></blockquote><p>The refund policy does not apply to iTunes gift cards. In all other cases, however, there’s little to stop people from trying out apps and then getting their money back. (They can request it online via the "Report a Problem” tool, or by writing to the company).&nbsp;</p><blockquote tml-bad-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/06/04/apple-app-store-analytics-wwdc-2014">Apple Services iOS Developers With New App Store Analytics</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>That may be a welcome change for users, but it can complicate matters for app makers. Thanks to the policy, people may try out paid apps and choose to keep ones they wouldn’t have downloaded before. In the best-case scenario, it could wind up lifting its already exploding digital economy even further. The <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20141020006526/en/Apple-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-Results#.VKHJAsAF">iTunes store brought in $4.6 billion</a> in revenue last quarter, including 85 billion App Store downloads. </p><p>Sounds great. But developers who make high-value apps—like games—could wind up being collateral damage if users get in the habit of grabbing them for a specific purpose, then demanding refunds.&nbsp;</p><p>For instance, you can keep your visiting brother out of your hair with "<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas/id763692274?mt=8">Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas</a>," and then ask for the $6.99 back after he leaves in a week. No questions asked. It would be the equivalent of buying a DVD, watching the movie, and then returning it—<a href="http://help.walmart.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9/~/return-policy">something most retail stores don't allow</a>.</p><p>It's already hard enough to get users to pay for apps up front. The refund policy will likely push more app developers to offer free games with in-app purchases, such as new levels or abilities that can only be unlocked if the player pays up.</p><p>On the other hand, a more liberal refund policy could prompt users to download paid apps they might otherwise have passed up. If those users end up keeping the app, that's money the developer might not otherwise have seen.</p><h2><strong>A Test Case</strong></h2><p>In the U.S., brick-and-mortar retailers tend to offer a similar refund policy that can run anywhere from one week to a couple of months, depending on the purchase and the location. But there’s no universally applied law covering all retailers, both physical and digital—and in most cases, playable media like movies and video games can only be returned unopened.</p><p>Apple’s new terms apply to E.U. countries only. The old, annoying restrictions on refunds live on for Mac and iOS users in the U.S., Canada and other non-E.U. countries.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Photo collaged by Adriana Lee, based on image by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/101332430@N03/9681096160/in/photolist-74H2vZ-9VyNgZ-5Eut7k-9dJaDZ-bmm93i-bmm8h6-bLxXgt-bxDhoE-n7qPrA-bgfuxT-cbDNZN-pE5pv5-9VBJ9Y-8hgMTy-52bYaY-5qF2kc-86WTjV-bxDenq-nSj9w6-bmm4dt-9k3jws-czE4Po-cZ3a4m-8hoKnk-4reUL2-7wyH5-bgfwR8-bxDdFC-9VByc5-9VyHut-9VBzSG-fKu9B3-dXpA6W-fKcyFM-bgfz6X-fKu9zd-bgfBHz-bgfAgD-7wat7L-bmm7zF-ahtP3t-ahrcJx-4wRe18-5QxrRF-nSokmf-e66cyp-bLxUSH-5M4Vao-8LaTSZ-FysoQ">OTA Photos</a></em></p>A test case for paid apps in Europe.http://readwrite.com/2014/12/29/apple-eu-return-14-day-policy-refunds-apps-ibooks-music
http://readwrite.com/2014/12/29/apple-eu-return-14-day-policy-refunds-apps-ibooks-musicMobileMon, 29 Dec 2014 14:21:49 -0800Adriana LeeWe Can All Now Safely Forget About CurrentC, A Mobile Payment System No One Needs<!-- tml-version="2" --><div tml-image="ci01be3f5bf0012a83" tml-image-caption=""><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI1NjA3NTAwNDkyODQzNjUx.jpg" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div><p>So there's this <a href="http://currentc.com/">mobile-payments thing</a>. You can't get it yet. It doesn't work with your credit card. You have to <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/25/currentc/">scan something with your phone, or maybe the cashier scans your phone</a>, or something. You have to give retailers your bank-account information. And it's <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/29/retailer-backed-apple-pay-rival-currentc-has-been-hacked-testers-email-addresses-stolen/">already been hacked</a>.</p><p>Sounds great, right?</p><p>I'm talking about <a href="http://currentc.com/">CurrentC</a>, which is an attempt by <a href="http://www.mcx.com/">MCX</a>, a consortium of retailers, to create a new mobile-payments system that bypasses banks, phone manufacturers, and mobile operating-system vendors in an attempt to cut down on the fees merchants have to pay to accept payments.</p><p>MCX members include Walmart, Target, Kmart, 7-Eleven, and a host of others. The reason why we're hearing about MCX is that it requires its members to foreswear any other mobile-payment system, including Apple Pay. CVS and Rite-Aid, whose payment terminals initially worked with Apple Pay, turned off access. (MCX <a href="http://www.mcx.com/blog/answers-to-your-questions/">confirmed its exclusivity requirement in a blog post</a>, though it said retailers could leave the consortium at any time without penalty.)</p><p>Apple Pay uses NFC, a standard technology for tap-and-go payments, so it doesn't actually need to have a deal with a retailer for it to work at a location with the right equipment. It's understood that CVS and Rite-Aid took measures to block Apple Pay in order to comply with MCX's terms.</p><p>If that wasn't enough of a black eye, MCX's systems were hacked, exposing CurrentC users' email addresses. MCX <a href="http://www.mcx.com/blog/1028-email-incident-report/">claims</a> no financial information was exposed and the CurrentC app wasn't affected, but given its retail partners' extremely poor track record with keeping customers' financial information safe, we have little reason to trust the organization's statements here.</p><h2>This CurrentC Won't Flow</h2><p>So why would consumers want to use CurrentC? MCX says it will offer coupons and loyalty rewards. In return, we'll have to give MCX our bank-account information.&nbsp;</p><p>This is a huge problem, of course. While consumers in Europe and other parts of the world are comfortable with sharing banking information to facilitate payments, U.S. consumers are leery about punching in bank account and routing numbers. (This attitude is especially bizarre considering Americans' lingering fondness for paper checks, which display exactly the same information in the clear to anyone who handles them.)</p><p>While Visa and MasterCard offer zero-liability policies for credit-card purchases, there are few protections for people who allow merchants to tap their bank accounts directly.</p><p>Similar attempts have stumbled. Safeway, the grocery chain, isn't a member of MCX, but it's <a href="http://www.safeway.com/ShopStores/Fast-Forward.page">offered a bank-account-linked payment card</a> called Fast Forward since 2013. It's still only available in certain counties in California, and doesn't seem to have gained much traction, despite Safeway offering discounts on gasoline purchases.</p><p>MCX cites the example of Starbucks as a successful, retailer-backed scan-and-pay system. But Starbucks is what's known as a "closed-loop" system—it's not a generalized payments tool. If something goes wrong, you can go to Starbucks. And you can reload your Starbucks Card account with a credit card: Starbucks is trying to make paying for your coffee more convenient, not less so.</p><p>So it's pretty clear what retailers gain: The two or three percentage points off of credit- and debit-card transactions that they have to pay to processors and banks. They'd pay far less if they're able to deduct payments directly from customers' bank accounts.</p><p>It's far from clear why consumers would be interested, save for the novelty of paying with their phones. Sure, they might be lured by discounts—but the truth is that retailers are competing against each other for lower prices and better service. How you pay is not a point of differentiation, unless you don't accept a customer's preferred payment method and they walk away leaving a full basket at the cash register.</p><p>My advice to MCX: Give up now. Your best bet may be to sell the consortium's assets—chiefly the exclusive contracts with retailers—to someone like Google or PayPal.&nbsp;</p><p>No one's going to trust retailers with bank-account information after the past few years' of megahacks; the CurrentC email hack just reminds people of all the credit and debit cards they've had to switch out.</p><p><em>Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/aisle22/9181719818">aisletwentytwo</a></em></p>Retailers are making a mistake.http://readwrite.com/2014/10/29/currentc-mcx-doomed
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/29/currentc-mcx-doomedMobileWed, 29 Oct 2014 12:01:44 -0700Owen ThomasPayPal Is Quietly Killing Off A Confusing Way To Pay In Stores<!-- tml-version="2" --><div tml-image="ci01b27953f0016d19" tml-render-position="center" tml-render-size="large"><figure><img src="http://a3.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMjkzNTQwMjM0NDg5MTEz.jpg" /></figure></div><p>PayPal has stopped promoting its Payment Card to consumers and erased most references to it from its website, and may soon discontinue it.</p><p>The card, a magnetic-stripe plastic card similar to credit and debit cards in appearance but linked to a PayPal account, will still be honored by merchants who accept it, according to a company spokesperson.</p><p>"If a customer chooses to use a PayPal payment card, they can easily request one through the PayPal.com site, or contact customer service,” PayPal’s Chris Morse told us. That’s sort of true—but they'd have to know that the card exists, and click through five screens to find the setting in which they can request a card.&nbsp;(There’s no charge for the card, which takes 7-10 days to arrive by mail.)</p><p>It’s not clear how much longer the card will remain available. Morse said that PayPal was focused on products which save consumers time and money. To us, it’s not clear how a plastic card fits that bill: It’s at most a convenience.</p><p>The company is now clearly&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/09/05/paypal-app-update-in-store-payments">emphasizing its mobile app as the way to pay in stores</a>.</p><h2>Plastic Or App?</h2><p>In this move, the company appears to be trading ubiquity for simplicity, slimming down its confusing array of payment products. In recent speeches, including <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/01/24/david-marcus-paypal-money-readwritemix-recap">our ReadWriteMix interview with PayPal president David Marcus in January</a>, executives have emphasized PayPal's mobile app as the primary way they hope consumers will use their PayPal account to pay for purchases in retail stores.</p><p>PayPal first <a href="http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/176_202/paypal-disintermediation-mobile-wallet-1043246-1.html">introduced the Payment Card in October 2011</a>, and <a href="http://readwrite.com/2012/08/23/will-paypals-history-derail-its-discovery-card-deal">inked a deal with Discover Financial Services</a>&nbsp;in 2012 to get it accepted in more stores. The company touted the plastic card as an option for <a href="https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/ent-instore-payments">payment at Home Depot stores</a>. And it signed up partners like Global Payments to get the card accepted at more stores, <a href="https://www.globalpaymentsinc.com/USA/PayPal.html">emphasizing the idea that it would work with a familiar swipe</a>.</p><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b2812cc0028266" tml-image-caption="At Home Depot, an option to pay by entering in your phone number and a PIN proved more popular than the plastic PayPal Payment Card." tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAyMTY3NzUwMTgxNDc4.jpg" /><figcaption>At Home Depot, an option to pay by entering in your phone number and a PIN proved more popular than the plastic PayPal Payment Card.</figcaption></figure></div><p>Consumers didn’t seem to bite, though. Don Kingsborough, PayPal's vice president of global retail, told me in 2012 that most consumers preferred to pay using their mobile-phone number and a PIN instead of the Payment Card.</p><p>Since then, smartphone adoption has soared, and PayPal has emphasized uses like ordering ahead and picking up at a store instead of ringing up a shopping cart full of purchases in a checkout line.</p><p>With PayPal deemphasizing the card, other players may bid for consumers looking to hold onto the convenience of swiping plastic. Google first <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130510/googles-wallet-plans-for-io-cloud-expansion-on-but-longtime-physical-card-plan-scuttled/">cancelled plans for a plastic Google Wallet card</a>&nbsp;last year,&nbsp;then <a href="http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2013/11/receive-money-with-google-wallet-spend.html">revived it in November</a>. There's also&nbsp;<a href="https://onlycoin.com/">Coin</a>, a startup which offers a physical card linked to multiple credit- and debit-card accounts. It offers the additional security feature of deactivating and notifying users when they walk away from their card. Still, PayPal's decision suggests that another&nbsp;plastic&nbsp;card may simply not offer enough benefits over the existing cards in consumers’&nbsp;wallets.</p><h2>So Many Cards, So Little Time</h2><p>The Payment Card product also likely <a href="https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/About-Products-Archive/Why-use-PayPal-Payment-Card-instead-of-PayPal-Debit-Card/td-p/580918">suffered from confusion</a> with not one, not two, but <em>three</em> other plastic-card products PayPal offers its customers. There’s a <a href="https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/debit-card">PayPal Business Debit Card</a>, primarily used by small-business owners to spend money in their PayPal accounts. And then there’s a <a href="https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-prepaid-mastercard">PayPal Prepaid MasterCard</a>, which is a conventional prepaid card which you can load from your PayPal account but which can’t tap your PayPal account directly for spending. And then there’s a <a href="https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/credit-card">PayPal Extras MasterCard</a>, a conventional cobranded credit card issued by GE Capital which has little to do with PayPal besides the name.</p><p>None of those cards, legacies of PayPal’s meandering product direction over the years, help PayPal communicate how you can spend with your PayPal account, linked to various bank-account and credit-card funding sources, in retail stores. In fact, they muddy the waters.</p><p>If PayPal’s Marcus decides he wants to cut up more plastic cards, he has lots of scissoring to do. And he’s indicated a willingness to trim down PayPal's product portfolio.</p><blockquote tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/09/05/paypal-app-update-in-store-payments">How PayPal's App Update Could Reinvent The Company</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>The company has never said how many Payment Cards it issued to consumers. And while PayPal didn’t directly address why it stop promoting the card, the timing is understandable. For one thing, plastic cards are less trusted in the wake of last year's Target hack, so whatever comfort consumers might have derived from a physical payment vehicle has likely dissipated. And PayPal would have to figure out how to upgrade the card to the new chip-and-PIN standard by next year, which likely would have required considerable engineering.</p><p>PayPal still has multiple options for in-store payments, including&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/10/08/paypal-payment-code-qr-code">Payment Code</a>, a combination of a scannable code and a one-time-use four-digit number that PayPal customers can use at some retail locations. It’s reasonable to think that the company will push that in place of plastic.</p>A plastic card for retail payments has disappeared from its website, suggesting a focus on its mobile app.http://readwrite.com/2014/05/06/paypal-payment-card-discontinued
http://readwrite.com/2014/05/06/paypal-payment-card-discontinuedMobileTue, 06 May 2014 07:03:00 -0700Owen ThomasTough Realities Persist In Mobile Payments<!-- tml-version="2" --><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b2811dd0018266" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAyMTA0MTMwODQ3MzM0.jpg" /></figure></div><p><em>The Platform is a regular column by mobile editor Dan Rowinski. Ubiquitous computing, ambient intelligence and pervasive networks are changing the way humans interact with everything.</em></p><blockquote tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"></blockquote><p>Welcome to The Platform, a new column by ReadWrite mobile editor and senior writer Dan Rowinski on how ubiquitous computing, pervasive networks and the power of the cloud are fundamentally changing everything.</p><p>Extraordinary power is found in people’s pockets these days. The ability to tap any piece of information, contextualize any act or help make a decision is just a swipe away. Human behaviors, industry verticals, acts of communication and promises of the future are all touched by the rise of powerful computers and sensors.</p><p>Look at what's happening in technology: Everywhere you look, cheap and potent computers are infiltrating every aspect of our lives. Our cars, our clothes, our factories and storefronts, our eye glasses and our wrists. Smartphones and tablets are just the beginning of the evolutionary shift where all the elements that touch our lives are digitized, gadget-ized, hooked to the Internet and computed in the cloud. The impact have profound consequences—positive and negative—that we can only begin to imagine.</p><p>The Platform will examine this epoch shift, providing commentary and analysis, reporting and critique. The Platform will be a resource to the curious and the creative, the builders and the artists.</p><p>You're out running errands on a Saturday morning. You’ve spent the day shopping for new clothes to add to your new spring fashion. On your way around town, you probably stopped for coffee, a sandwich or a pack of gum. You may even pop into the hardware store to grab some nails to hang a painting at home, or the local Wal-Mart or Target to get a new laundry basket. So what do all of these activities have in common?</p><p>You’re spending money.</p><p>As you're completing your errands, you're performing the same action at any given stop. When it's time to check out, you reach into your pocket and pull out your wallet. You hand a debit or credit card to the cashier, or maybe cash. Chances are, you're <em>not</em> reaching for your smartphone to pay.</p><p>Three years have passed since the notion of mobile payments—paying at a physical retail location with your smartphone—reached the height of its hype cycle. In 2011, the talk on entrepreneurs’ lips was that technologies like smartphones, mobile wallets, QR codes and Near Field Communications (NFC) would soon fundamentally change how people make transactions.</p><p>The reality of getting people and stores to actually accept mobile payments, however, has been a different reality entirely.</p><p>For technologists, the thought of upending the way people pay comes down to two factors: 1)&nbsp;Money is essentially a data science; and 2)&nbsp;Technological advances and ubiquitous computers provide the platform to change a fundamental human behavior.</p><p>Still, each company that has tried to jump into the payments fray has learned one resolute and inarguable fact: Payments are hard.</p><h2>4 Examples Of Struggle</h2><p>Humor me while we do a little blind comparison of four companies that have attempted to gain traction in the payments space. All four have run into different problems that tend to plague most company that try to break into the payments space.</p><p><strong>Company A</strong>&nbsp;started as a geo-location game similar to Foursquare, but after a couple of years of mediocrity, it pivoted to payments with an app, a merchandizing formula and QR codes. Today, it continues to grow but has not achieved the type of scale that its investors had envisioned.</p><p><strong>Company B</strong>&nbsp;started bringing credit card payments everywhere five years ago by attaching a card-reading dongle to people’s smartphones and tablets. The company raised more than $300 million in funding, achieved immense scale and popularity, but despite processing $20 billion in payments last year and making $550 million in revenue, still was in the red in 2013—to the tune of $100 million.</p><p><strong>Company C&nbsp;</strong>started as a classroom project at Stanford by a wunderkind founder that thought he could change the way people pay with their smartphones. The company raised the largest seed round in the history of Silicon Valley startups and proceeded to go through one controversy after another. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-story-of-clinkle-2014-4">Despite the hype and promises, the company has yet to release a product.</a></p><p><strong>Company D</strong>&nbsp;imagined a way to change how smartphone payments are processed at physical locations that don't have QR code scanners or NFC. It raised an over-subscribed $10 million round and began to make partnerships and ship its dongles. The venture capital and technology communities applauded it but saw it as a stopgap invention on its way to more credible solutions.</p><p>Company A is Boston-based <a href="https://www.thelevelup.com/">LevelUp</a>, which used to be SCVNGR before it folded up that part of its business. Company B is <a href="https://squareup.com/?sro=1">Square</a>, the dongle-based smartphone payments system started by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Company C is the travesty that is <a href="https://www.clinkle.com/">Clinkle</a>, started by Stanford graduate <a href="http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mdg45edmhm/lucas-duplan-22/">Lucas Duplan</a>. Company D is called <a href="http://www.looppay.com/">Loop</a>, which uses a dongle/smartphone case approach to allow for ubiquitous mobile payments by tapping into a point-of-sale system’s existing electromagnetic card scanners.</p><blockquote tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><p><strong>See also:&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/06/28/heres-a-heavy-dose-of-reality-for-new-mobile-payments-startup-clinkle#awesm=~oCaebNx4f8WsRA">Here's A Heavy Dose Of Reality For New Mobile Payments Startup Clinkle</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>Each of these companies has issues. Whether it's revenue and profitability (Square), achieving meaningful scale through a sales technology platform (LevelUp), drumming up consumer-side adoption with an in-between technology solution (Loop) or just getting out of your own way to actually create a business (Clinkle), all of these payments companies face unique challenges.</p><p>But these companies aren't alone in their hardship. Google took at stab at mobile payments with its <a href="http://www.google.com/wallet/">NFC-based Wallet</a>, but has not been able to break into retail locations like it would have hoped. Cellular operators like T-Mobile, AT&amp;T and Verizon created the <a href="https://www.paywithisis.com/">Isis mobile wallet</a> with NFC, which was basically dead on arrival. What we are seeing across the entire payments technology ecosystem is that most of the basic tenets of business are extremely difficult.</p><h2>LevelUp &amp; The Slow Path</h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b2811e40008266" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAyMTA1NzQxNDU0NjE3.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Boston-based LevelUp made a lot of noise in 2012. It touted its new platform as a mobile wallet that can be used at participating locations by scanning a QR code, but its goal was to create a world called “interchange zero,” where the cost of making a transaction is 0% of a purchase (most payment processors like Visa or Mastercard charge around 2.75%). LevelUp hired a large sales force and invested in turning its app into an open platform that retailers could implement both online and off.&nbsp;</p><p>For the next year and a half, LevelUp was hardly heard from. You would see it in the wild on occasion (especially in the Boston area), but CEO Seth Priesbatch and his crew did not make many waves in 2013.&nbsp;</p><p>Last week, Priebatsch invited ReadWrite to LevelUp headquarters to talk about progress. The small payments company was very candid about its numbers, showing progress while acknowledging it is not yet profitable and that it's had to make adjustments in its approach to dealing with market realities.</p><p>Here are some of the numbers that show the traction that LevelUp is getting:</p><ul><li>14,000 merchants in the U.S. accept LevelUp, though not all are active.</li><li>LevelUp is integrated into 50 point-of-sale partners.</li><li>The average transaction is a little less than $10.</li><li>About 10% of all charges are redeemed credit through LevelUp’s rewards and loyalty marketing program for retailers.</li><li>LevelUp makes 25% of every dollar of redeemed credit. For instance, if a user spends $100 through the app and 10% of that is redeemed credit, LevelUp makes $2.50.</li><li>Most merchants accepting LevelUp in the U.S. are in the food industry.</li><li>LevelUp is processing about 600,000 transactions a month.</li></ul><p>As of last week, LevelUp charges 1.95% for interchange. This means Levelup’s back-end interchange rate has dropped from 5.2% in February 2013 to about 2% today. LevelUp has lowered its own interchange rate by aggregating individual consumer purchases together over a period of time to lessen the interchange on any single purchase.</p><p>LevelUp also has an open software developer kit (SDK) where developers can build apps using LevelUp as a processor without necessarily using the company’s marketing and loyalty programs. Priebatsch recognizes the value in being the pipe and he is fighting to lower interchange to bring in more volume for his platform.</p><p>If we compare LevelUp with a company like Square, the difference is almost laughable. But LevelUp is making money (if only in small amounts) and it has made the decision to focus more on engineering (about half of the company’s 85 employees are engineers) and relied less on a robust and expensive sales force to push its product, moving most of its sales into its partner channels. LevelUp is making incremental steps, which is not bad for a company that spends next to nothing on marketing and advertising. Priebatsch estimates the company will be profitable within the next year or so.&nbsp;</p><p>The case for lowering interchange by companies like LevelUp is a strong one. Let’s take the case of Square, for instance. Yes, it is doing $20 billion in transaction volume, but losing $100 million last year is significant. Square tried out a program with smaller retailers where it would charge $275 per month as a flat interchange rate. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/square-new-pricing-plan-math-2012-8">As ReadWrite editor-in-chief Owen Thomas predicted when the program came out</a>, Square lost a bundle of money. In February, Square quietly did away with the program and now charges industry-standard 2.75% per transaction. Merchants—like <a href="http://www.1369coffeehouse.com/">1369 Coffee House</a> in Cambridge, Massachusetts—saw its interchange fee rise from $275 to well over $1,000 for the month.&nbsp;</p><p>LevelUp doesn’t want to make money off interchange, but rather take a slice of your marketing and loyalty budget. It may seem like fuzzy math, but if you charge nothing for interchange and take 2.5% through a marketing program, isn’t it just replacing the interchange? Well, yes and no. Most merchants are going to have some type of marketing budget anyway, where they pay some third-party to provide a solution. LevelUp wants to be that third party.</p><h2>The Adoption Quandary</h2><blockquote tml-render-position="left" tml-render-size="medium"><p><strong>Quote Of The Day:</strong>&nbsp;"I hold that the mark of a genuine idea is that its possibility can be proved, either a priori by conceiving its cause or reason, or a posteriori when experience teaches us that it is in fact in nature."&nbsp;~ Gottfried Leibniz, creator of calculus.</p></blockquote><p>Every time I talk to a mobile payments company, the same question comes up: Is growth happening from the consumer side, or the merchant side?</p><p>It is this type of chicken-and-egg question that typifies the adoption of any platform, mobile payments included.&nbsp;</p><p>The historical route to scale adoption has been to make partnerships with major players like banks, payment processors, merchants and technology companies like Apple or Google. A large sales force is needed to actually get the payments system into merchant locations and point-of-sale providers. Going down the partnerships and sales route is logical for these companies because, we have to realize, these are businesses with targets and goals. It is much easier to stand up at the quarterly meeting and list off all the deals you have made with tangible businesses than to point at vague charts of consumer adoption (which is something social-based startups thrive on).&nbsp;</p><p>In payments, it is very difficult to scale from the consumer side. Companies need technological solutions that are ubiquitous and without barrier. If I can use my Square or LevelUp wallet at one merchant but not another, I am less likely to use it at all. Technological ubiquity across the entire landscape just does not exist for these would-be disruptors of how you pay, and the key holders—Visa, MasterCard, American Express, et al—are not too keen on opening the door too widely for companies that could cut into their bottom line.</p><p>Payment companies' worries naturally turn to merchant solutions, which play in the same realm as the companies they are trying to disrupt. Focus turns to interchange and marketing, loyalty programs and gadgets. If I can put a QR scanner or a dongle in your store, I win that store, right?</p><p>The case for Loop is that it wants to eliminate those technological barriers, providing a solution where a merchant doesn’t need a LevelUp scanner or a Square card reader or NFC. But its dongles and cases are neither practical nor convenient. Like just about everybody else in the payments space, Loop is a technology trying to change a behavior that doesn’t necessarily need to be changed.</p><p>No matter how the problem is sliced, the basic fact keeps coming up over and over again: Payments are hard. Adoption, revenue, consumer and merchant behavior, partnerships, sales, advertising and people are simultaneously the largest enablers of the changing landscape of payments... and also its biggest inhibitors.</p><p><em>This article has been updated to reflect that LevelUp takes 25% of every dollar redeemed for credit.</em></p><p><em>Lead image courtesy of Reuters</em></p>Square, LevelUp and Clinkle can all verify one basic fact: Payments are hard.http://readwrite.com/2014/04/22/mobile-payments-companies-solutions-growth-levelup-square
http://readwrite.com/2014/04/22/mobile-payments-companies-solutions-growth-levelup-squareMobileTue, 22 Apr 2014 08:12:00 -0700Dan Rowinski5 Unique And Innovative Online Shopping Sites<!-- tml-version="2" --><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b280cbd0016d19" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a1.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAxNzUxNDA2NjUyNjk3.jpg" /></figure></div><p><em><a href="http://readwrite.com/series/shop">ReadWriteShop</a> is an occasional series about the intersection of technology and commerce.</em></p><p>Online shopping is oftentimes incredibly cut-and-dry. In the same way that online retail has given us the ability to shop with the speed of simply checking things off of a list, it has also made the experience itself dull and mundane. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>If you're looking to inject some charm into e-commerce, take a peek at these five websites that emphasize innovation, quality, and community participation. Have fun, and shop unique.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h2><a href="http://www.betabrand.com/">BetaBrand&nbsp;</a></h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b2819860018266"><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAyNjI5NDU5MDI5Mjcz.jpg" /></figure></div><p><a href="http://www.betabrand.com/">BetaBrand</a> digs deeply into the hilarious minds of its consumers to get the precise advertising they (and their buyers) want to see. The apparel brand's "Model Citizen" feature&nbsp;challenges consumers to model the clothing in the zaniest, most creative way possible. The "fan fueled fashion machine" acquires hundreds of wacky community photos that provide the perfect buzz to attract more purchases.&nbsp;</p><p>Along with its usual array of clothing options for men and women (like a wide selection of hoodies and trousers), BetaBrand also has a crowdfunding option that encourages user-submitted apparel design. Members of the BetaBrand community will vote on their favorite design, and then crowdfund the prototype to turn it into a product for purchase. By the people, for the people!&nbsp;</p><h2><a href="http://www.thegrommet.com/">The Grommet</a></h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b28198e0028266"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAyNjMyMTQzMzg5Mjg2.jpg" /></figure></div><p><a href="http://www.thegrommet.com/">The Grommet</a> operates like many of its curatorial &nbsp;e-commerce peers, albeit with a twist. This "product launch platform" seeks out the best, most innovative, yet undiscovered products and companies and brings them to light on their site.</p><p>Products supported by the Grommet adhere to certain specific standards, including solving problems in new ways, preserving handcrafts, creating jobs, fostering green practices, building a social enterprise, creating in the USA, and inventing new technology.&nbsp;Indeed, being endorsed by the Grommet makes the product itself a "Grommet," defined as a product "with a purpose invented by people with stories."</p><h2><a href="http://theflowertruck.com/home/home/">The Flower Truck</a></h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b2819990026d19"><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAyNjM1MDk2MTc5MzAy.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Located in the Los Angeles area, this aromatic truck combines the best features of your favorite food truck and the florist. Loyal fans and interested customers can locate the whereabouts of the roving&nbsp;<a href="http://theflowertruck.com/home/home/">Flower Truck&nbsp;</a>by seeking out its&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/theflowertruck">Twitter</a> page. Other product stations on wheels include Boston's <a href="https://twitter.com/TheFashionTruck">The Fashion Truck</a> and Detroit's <a href="https://twitter.com/ThirdManRRS">TMR Rolling Record Store</a>. What product-selling truck would you like to see next?&nbsp;</p><h2><a href="http://fancy.com/">Fancy</a></h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b2819a50038266"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,w_620/MTIyMzAyNjM3NTEyMDk4NDA2.png" /></figure></div><p>This curatorial site provides oh-so-many fancy things. Members of online-shopping-meets-pin-board <a href="http://fancy.com/">Fancy</a> are able to curate their own boards with products on the site that they love, whether beer glasses, sneakers or nifty TARDIS-themed clocks.</p><p>The beautifully-shot images of the most enviable items online are pulled from across the web onto Fancy, where users can then feature them on their personal wall. Fancy one-ups the community and voyeuristic aspect of similar pin-board sites by making it simple to purchase those aspirational goods right then and there.&nbsp;</p><h2><a href="http://www.bowanddrape.com/">Bow and Drape&nbsp;</a></h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b2819ae0016d19"><figure><img src="http://a3.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,w_620/MTIyMzAyNjQwMTk2NDQ3NTEz.png" /></figure></div><p>Online apparel retailer <a href="http://www.bowanddrape.com/">Bow and Drape</a>&nbsp;is for the fashionista seeking the ultimate customized look. Using this site, members can take from various types of apparel, like white button-ups, skirts, blazers, and dresses, and dabble in making their own creation with aspects like length, pattern, sleeves, color, and applique. The site's own seamstresses whip up your personalized mock-up and send it your way. Similar site <a href="http://www.shoesofprey.com/">Shoes of Prey</a> are for those looking for their feet to stand out from every other Ugg and Chuck Taylor on the street.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Images courtesy of <a href="http://www.betabrand.com/?m=13405">BetaBrand</a>, <a href="http://www.thegrommet.com/women/scrunchable-water-bottle-by-bubi-bottle">the Grommet</a>, <a href="http://theflowertruck.com/home/home/">the Flower Truck</a>, <a href="http://fancy.com/">Fancy</a>, <a href="http://www.bowanddrape.com/">Bow and Drape</a></em></p>Shake off your e-commerce ennui with a gander at these five definitely not run-of-the-mill shopping sites.http://readwrite.com/2013/12/11/5-best-most-unique-shopping-sites-online
http://readwrite.com/2013/12/11/5-best-most-unique-shopping-sites-onlineWebWed, 11 Dec 2013 11:55:00 -0800Stephanie Ellen ChanNow PayPal Aims To Track You In Real Life<!-- tml-version="2" --><div tml-image="ci01b282f480038266" tml-render-position="center" tml-render-size="large"><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzA0MTI1MTgxNTIxMTc3.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Since David Marcus took over as CEO of PayPal last year, the payments arm of eBay Inc. has been busily pumping out new products such as its&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/09/05/paypal-app-update-in-store-payments">revamped mobile app</a>.</p><p>But as he pulls out a small device, hardly bigger than a flash-memory drive, from a cloth pouch, he grins: "This is the launch I'm most excited about."</p><p>What has Marcus so stoked?</p><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b282f4f0018266" tml-image-caption="Here&amp;#039;s PayPal Beacon, a shopper detector for stores." tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzA0MTI3MDYwNDM4Mjk3.jpg" /><figcaption>Here&amp;#039;s PayPal Beacon, a shopper detector for stores.</figcaption></figure></div><h2>A Shopper Detector For Stores</h2><p>It's PayPal Beacon, a night-light-sized piece of hardware that aims to detect when one of PayPal's 140 million users is near a store that takes PayPal. The primary goal is to make it easier for users to pay for real-world purchases using their PayPal app, since merchants will be primed for them at the register.</p><p>It's not a new concept in the mobile-commerce world. Square, a rival payments service, has a similar feature. And Shopkick, a rewards service that offers discounts and promotions, detects when its app users walk into a store using a device that emits high-frequency audio.</p><p>But Marcus believes that PayPal's approach, which takes advantage of the newest version of Bluetooth, a short-range wireless technology, is the only one that will scale to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of locations. Which speaks to PayPal's designs on the market for real-world, in-store payments.</p><p>Existing smartphone location technologies drain users' batteries and are limited in the number of venues they can track, Marcus argues.</p><h2>A Hardware Fix Waiting For Better Software?</h2><p>PayPal Beacon is an elegant, even subtle piece of hardware, with a triangular shape that echoes PayPal Here, PayPal's credit-card swiper. (PayPal got lots of grief for <a href="http://readwrite.com/2012/03/16/paypal_here">mimicking Square's four-sided credit-card reader</a>, minus one side, but it seems to be sticking with the visual metaphor.)</p><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b282f550016d19" tml-render-position="left" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzA0MTI4NjcxMTg3NTU4.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Using Bluetooth to confirm users' physical presence seems like a reasonably smart choice. The latest version of the technology is ubiquitous in new iPhones and Android models. (Users with older phones can always check in manually within PayPal's app to announce their presence.)</p><p>Whether users check in automatically or manually, their names and faces—if they've added a photo to their PayPal accounts—will show up on the merchants' point-of-sale system. PayPal has its own iPad software, and it has also integrated the feature that lets you pay by saying your name with other cash-register software.</p><p>But the cost seems like it could slow adoption of a technology that wants to be ubiquitous. PayPal has not yet announced Beacon's price; Marcus says it will be less than $100.</p><p>Apple and Google are trying hard to reduce the battery requirements of their platforms' location services.&nbsp;It is possible that Beacon could have a short life as users' locations becomes easier to pin down without special hardware.</p><p>Marcus argues that in dense retail locations, like malls and downtown shopping districts, standard location services won't deliver enough precision for some time.</p><h2>Saving A Swipe</h2><p>It seems like a lot of effort to save people a credit-card swipe or a manual check-in. Even&nbsp;Marcus admits: "I've never met anyone who says, 'Swiping my card is hard'."</p><p>Where things get interesting is the weaving together of location with coupons and loyalty programs. What if Beacon, for example, offered you a discount on a latte—not the first time you walked into a café, but the second time? That could solve a lot of complaints merchants have about online-to-offline marketing programs, which often drive discount-seeking newbies to a store, but do little to keep them coming back.</p><p>In going into stores with its mobile app, Beacon, and its suite of services for shopkeepers, PayPal will have to deal with lingering blowback over its original online-payments business. Customers are frustrated by occasions where they feel that PayPal hasn't done enough to investigate fraud; organizations accepting payments, particularly nontraditional ones like crowdfunding campaigns, are understandably quick to anger when PayPal freezes their account (in an effort to avert those same fraud complaints that enrage consumers).</p><h2>A Beacon For PayPal's Brand?</h2><p>Those incidents may be rare in PayPal's total stream of transactions, but they reverberate online. (Marcus responds to unhappy customers and critics on Twitter and even in the <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/09/05/paypal-app-update-in-store-payments#comment-1031456312">comments of news stories about the company</a>, and PayPal says it has lowered the number of accounts it freezes on suspicion of fraud.)&nbsp;</p><p>The best hope for PayPal is that its in-store efforts don't just help it expand its base of payments, but also rebuild its brand—standing for the ease of paying with your phone in your pocket or saving money without digging for a coupon. PayPal may not be the first to bring these innovations to market, but Marcus clearly believes it can bring them to the masses.&nbsp;</p>A new device, Beacon, helps locate you inside brick-and-mortar stores. It's part of PayPal's push into physical retail.http://readwrite.com/2013/09/09/paypal-beacon-launch
http://readwrite.com/2013/09/09/paypal-beacon-launchWebMon, 09 Sep 2013 14:50:00 -0700Owen ThomasNot Pinterested, Thanks: Get Your Own Damn Taste<!-- tml-version="2" --><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b282bf60038266"><figure><img src="http://a3.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAzODk3Mjc5NzU4OTUw.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Making money from social media is tricky business.&nbsp;When it comes to&nbsp;profiting off what people share,&nbsp;there's a line between tasteful and tacky, between inspired and creepy.&nbsp;Although Pinterest is proceeding cautiously on this front—and with good reason—some of its knockoffs are racing to commoditize people's lives and mementos.&nbsp;</p><p>That's right: We've hit a new stage in which people can not only share their heartfelt moments and treasured images with friends, but also turn them into shopping portals that let everyone they know copy their tastes.&nbsp;</p><p>Looks like the line between inspired and creepy just got a little fuzzier.&nbsp;</p><h2>Bitch Stole My Look</h2><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b282bfe0038266" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAzODk4ODkwMzA2MTUw.jpg" /></figure></div><p><em>My friends Jane and Tanya were pals. They'd known each other for five years and frequented the same social circles, in real life, as well as online. But Jane started noticing a bizarre pattern. Every time she bought a new scarf, sweater or bag, Tanya would show up a week later with the same item.</em></p><p>Aspirations are powerful, and no one knows that better than Pinterest. It's the secret sauce in the 3-year-old online photo pinboard's popularity. The site's 40 million users use it to save recipes they hope to cook, styles they want to test, or projects they'd love to try. And when it comes to sharing items from e-commerce sites,&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/07/18/watch-out-facebook-why-google-and-pinterest-are-gaining-as-social-rivals#awesm=~ocjgEsmQC4smKB">Pinterest has actually lapped social juggernaut Facebook</a>.&nbsp;Adding retail to this environment would make perfect sense.&nbsp;</p><p>Even so, Pinterest moves carefully, and wisely so. “We’re trying to do something where the average person … feels that it makes the experience better,” <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130529/pinterest-ceo-ben-silbermann-the-full-d11-interview-video/">CEO Ben Silberman said at D11: All Things D conference</a> last May. He explained the company doesn't want to "commodify someone’s passions."</p><p>That same month, the site <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2269604/With-Rich-Pins-Pinterest-Begins-Working-Better-With-Brands">debuted "rich pins"</a>—snippets that give extra information, such as ingredients (for recipes) and, yes, retail links for certain products or stores.&nbsp;But Pinterest has a key differentiating factor. Because its pins are usually aspirational, it's not necessarily selling users' current lifestyles.&nbsp;</p><p>Compare that to <a href="http://www.mystorey.com">MyStorey</a>, a Los Angeles-based startup that turns people's own photos into shopping portals. The network—now in the middle of a limited beta test—is like a mash-up of Flickr, Pinterest and Fab. Users share their own images (like Flickr) in a pinboard format (like Pinterest), and tag those photos with prices and retail links, so followers can buy the featured clothes, accessories and other goods (like Fab).</p><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b282c040018266" tml-render-position="left" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a3.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAzOTAxMDM3Nzg0MzQ1.jpg" /></figure></div><p>I'm not sure what the motivation is for users, since they don't earn money from the sales. I wondered if it was the cachet of being a trendsetter, so I&nbsp;conducted an unofficial, completely unscientific survey of a few friends.</p><p>Here's what I found: Half of them thought this was a great idea. They love sharing deals and steals anyway, and some couldn't wait to follow certain people they know and admire. Those in the other half, however, were appalled—as if they faced the prospect of Joan Rivers' "Bitch Stole My Look" jumping off E!'s <em>Fashion Police</em> and landing in their own lives.&nbsp;</p><p>I'm with the latter group. I took MyStorey for a spin last month, and after uploading one pic—of my brand-new mid-century modern sofa—a thought flashed through my mind. I suddenly imagined my beloved sofa sitting in the homes of everyone I know. Then I pictured all of my friends and family wearing the same thing, eating at the same restaurants and living in carbon copy homes.&nbsp;</p><p>I immediately decided not to upload another pic.&nbsp;</p><h2>My Closet Is Not Your Store</h2><p><em>Soon, people started referring to Jane and Tanya as "the twins." Jane wasn't pleased. In fact, she was dying to put her foot down, but how? She was the one who first turned Tanya on to some of her favorite shops and brands. She had no idea that her friend would start mimicking her style.</em></p><p>In itself, the notion of social network–fueled shopping—or "we-commerce"—isn't wrong-headed. It's not even anything new. Personal recommendations from friends <a href="http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/72983.html#sthash.TPjVDwPL.dpuf">have always carried more weight for consumers</a> than slick marketing materials or promotional pushes. It also piggybacks on the same human nature that drives us to tell friends about a big clearance sale or where we got that amazing new stand mixer for half the price.&nbsp;</p><p>But telling a friend or two about a hot discount or a fabulous purchase is different from showing all your contacts how to clone your closet or house. Some sites may want us all to feel like celebrities endorsing products, but this doesn't appeal to everyone. Maybe that would change if everyone had bodyguards and security personnel to deal with wayward followers.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div tml-image="ci01b282c0f0018266" tml-render-position="right" tml-render-size="medium"><figure><img src="http://a1.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAzOTAzNDUzNzAzNDQ5.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Indeed, some people go to freaky extremes, both offline and on. Anecdotes about Facebook stalking&nbsp;have become cautionary tales—there's even a <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Facebook-Stalkers">WikiHow for dealing with it</a>—and now&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/linkedin-stalker-petition-block_n_3460999.html">LinkedIn stalking</a> has been getting attention. Add the allure of a social network that puts users' lives on sale, and we could have a nation of&nbsp;Jennifer Jason Leighs going all <em>Single White Female</em> on people.&nbsp;</p><p>Once again, I shudder.&nbsp;</p><h2>The Right Way To Share Social Retail</h2><p><em>I urged Jane to have a heart to heart with her friend and gently tell her what she was feeling. And Jane succeeded in getting her point across. Tanya eventually found her own style. Actually, it belonged to a local boutique a neighbor turned her on to. She started buying whole outfits as they appeared in its window.&nbsp;</em></p><p>That's not to say retail and social networking don't make for a great partnership. In fact, a few sites are actually getting it right. <a href="http://www.fab.com">Fab</a>, for instance—which <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57593718-93/fab-drops-flash-sales-to-start-following-personal-tastes/">just dropped its "Hurry now!" flash-sale approach</a> in favor of letting customers follow tastemakers—works because it's a store first and a social site second.&nbsp;</p><p>In a similar vein,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fancy.com">Fancy</a>, which positions itself as more of a wish list, also manages to sell products without selling people's personal memories, mementos and special moments. There are no photos of baby's first steps visually marred by price tags promoting retail links for that adorable rattle or bib.&nbsp;</p><p>The retail industry is finding its legs in this new social media-driven world. Meanwhile, social sites are clearly experimenting with ways to turn a profit. I have no doubt they will figure it out. I just have no idea if they'll be able to do it without turning the act of "sharing" into a tacky pursuit powered by wannabes and followers,&nbsp;or creeping people out in the process.&nbsp;</p><p>As for my friends Jane and Tanya, they remain friendly, though they're not as close as they used to be. But I learned something from their situation:&nbsp;There's a difference between admiring someone's taste and ripping it off. I have fingers crossed that this social distinction will survive social media and its push for monetization.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Feature image courtesy of <a href="http://www.mystorey.com">MyStorey</a>. Image of identical toys/figurines courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/minifig/7434353462/">Flickr user Thom</a>. Images of </em>Fashion Police<em> and </em>Single White Female<em>&nbsp;screen captured from YouTube via <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1hty5jANkg">E! Entertainment</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yosiG9eEEHA">movieclips</a>, respectively.&nbsp;</em></p>Why turning users' memories and photos into shopping opportunities is both tacky and creepy.http://readwrite.com/2013/07/23/not-pinterested-thanks-get-your-own-damn-taste
http://readwrite.com/2013/07/23/not-pinterested-thanks-get-your-own-damn-tasteSocialTue, 23 Jul 2013 05:09:00 -0700Adriana LeeHow Retailers Fight Back Against Shoppers Who Use Them As Showrooms<!-- tml-version="2" --><div tml-image="ci01b2826360028266" tml-render-position="center" tml-render-size="large"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAzNTAwNTMyMTQ5NTI5.jpg" /></figure></div><p>Showrooming, the practice of looking at items in a physical store and then buying them online, is yet-another pain-in-the-butt problem facing brick-and mortar retailers. Despite all the hand-wringing, however, there are ways to mitigate the problem.</p><p>First, there's evidence to suggest that the showrooming is not quite as bad a problem as some think. A <a href="http://pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2013/PIP_In_store_mobile_commerce_PDF.pdf">Pew Internet &amp; American Life Project survey</a> from the beginning of 2013 found that of surveyed consumers, fewer than half (46%) called someone for advice for a purchase, and only 28% used their phone to look up product reviews and 27% used their phone to look up product pricing during the 2012 holiday shopping season.&nbsp;All told, 58% of cell phone owners used their phones to try one of these shopping activities in the store. Not surprisingly, younger shoppers (78% of 18-29 year olds) and smartphone owners (72%) led the way.</p><h2>Not Everyone Showrooms</h2><p>But here's something telling… even though the number of cell-phone shoppers increased from 2012 to 2013, "When asked what happened on the most recent occasion they looked up the price of a product inside a store using their cell phone, 46% of 'mobile price matchers' say that they ultimately purchased the product in that store - an 11-point increase from the 35% of such price matchers who said this in 2012," the report stated.</p><p>The rest of the results were equally interesting: 30% of cell-phone shoppers didn't buy the product at all, just 12% purchased the product online and only 6% went to another store to buy the product.</p><p>Retailers, it appears, are getting better at keeping customers buying in the store, no matter what they are finding on their phones and tablets.</p><p><strong>(See also&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/05/06/paper-bricks-cash-will-die-the-inevitable-evolution-of-local-commerce">Paper, Bricks &amp; Cash Will Die: The Inevitable Evolution Of Local Commerce</a>.)</strong></p><p>Still, 12% of cell-phone owners is a significant chunk of revenue. And there's every indication that as smartphones continue to penetrate the market and older shoppers are increasingly replaced with younger, more showrooming-friendly buyers, retailers have to address the problem head on.</p><p>There are plenty of ways that proactive retailers can fight showrooming. These five are a good place to start:</p><h2>1. Differentiate Your Products</h2><p>Amazon got its start selling books for reason.&nbsp;Bookstores are especially vulnerable to showrooming because unless they are selling very specialized publishers' catalog items or very rare and special books, a book is a book is a book.&nbsp;</p><p>If anything, the big booksellers made the very bed they are now forced to lie in. By presenting books as a bulk commodity, Barnes &amp; Noble, Books-a-Million and the extinct Borders reinforced the notion of books as a pure commodity, and that it didn't matter where you got the book, as long as you saved money. That was great when they were cheaper than independent bookstores, but it's come back to haunt them in the form of lower prices online.</p><p>Other retailers may have things a little easier, because not every product is available online in exactly the same form as in the local stores.&nbsp;But stores getting hurt by showrooming should think about switching up their inventory with unique items that may be harder to find online.&nbsp;</p><div tml-image="ci01b28263d0016d19"><figure><img src="http://a1.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,w_620/MTIyMzAzNTA0MDIxODEwNDU3.png" /></figure></div><p> 2. Incentivize Local Shoppers</p><p>It's old-school business to entice customers into your establishment with sales and coupons. Don't stop; people still like that stuff. But other techniques can also help pull customers in the front door.</p><p>Mobile shopping apps are the bane of a retailers' existence - anything that makes it easier to comparison shop can encourage users to walk out the door. But what about an app that does the opposite, rewarding users every time they walk in a participating merchant's store?</p><p>That's the hook for <a href="http://shopkick.com/">Shopkick</a>, a mobile, location-based app that reward users with points that can be redeemed for in-store purchases and rewards from other merchants and brands who have partnered with Shopkick.</p><p> Cyriac Roeding, CEO and co-founder of Shopkick, said the app has more 5 million users and has delivered $200 million in revenue to Shopkick's 15 retail partners - including Target and Best Buy.</p><div tml-image="ci01b2826490016d19"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAzNTA2OTc0NTQwMzkw.jpg" /></figure></div><p>While Shopkick is not primarily about anti-showrooming, Roeding explained, it can tend to help depress that activity. The main objective, Roeding said, is to get foot traffic in the door. Shopkick also includes features designed to help customers shop and discover products before they enter the store.</p><h2>3. Provide Service... With A Smile</h2><p>One thing missing from most product retailers these days is the need to repair anything. In our mostly disposable society, it is usually cheaper and faster to junk a broken product rather than have it repaired.</p><p>That means most buyer's&nbsp;connection with a store ends the moment they walk out the door with their purchase - reducing the differentiation from online retailers.&nbsp;It doesn't have to be that way.&nbsp;If post-purchase service doesn't make sense, what about training and support?&nbsp;</p><h2>4. Make Shopping An Event</h2><p>Special events offer another way to entice buyers into brick and mortar stores. Grocery stores can set up cooking classes. Apparel outlets can host fashion shows. Any special and even semi-regular event that convinces your customers to come back will strengthen the perception that &nbsp;connection and make it less likely the customer will use your store for showrooming.</p><h2>5. Don't Panic</h2><p>What retailers don't need to do is panic. Most customers don't walk into a store with showrooming in mind; they're there to shop, as quickly or as leisurely as they would have been before smartphones came along. Pay attention to customers' needs, put in the extra effort and, as the stats still indicate, they'll likely follow buy from you, not from some faceless online retailer.</p><p><strong>(Need more? See also&nbsp;<a href="http://readwrite.com/2012/12/06/showrooming-5-ways-retailers-can-fight-back-slideshow">Showrooming: 5 Ways Retailers Can Fight Back [Slideshow]</a>.)</strong></p><p><em>Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock</a><br tml-linebreak="true" /></em></p>Innovative apps and time-tested marketing practices are a retailer's best defense against showrooming: customers who shop for items in the store but buy them online.http://readwrite.com/2013/05/07/new-fangled-apps-old-school-marketing-combine-to-stymie-showrooming
http://readwrite.com/2013/05/07/new-fangled-apps-old-school-marketing-combine-to-stymie-showroomingWebTue, 07 May 2013 04:01:00 -0700Brian ProffittPaper, Bricks & Cash Will Die: The Inevitable Evolution Of Local Commerce<!-- tml-version="2" --><div tml-image="ci01b2825e10056d19" tml-render-position="center" tml-render-size="large"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAzNDc4Nzg4OTQzMTI5.jpg" /></figure></div><p><em>Guest author Landy Ung is CEO and co-founder of </em><a href="http://www.8coupons.com/"><em>8coupons.</em></a></p><p>No matter where in the world you go, you remain tied to some latitude/longitude position in time and space. This is what makes local media and local commerce so powerful and the reason why real-time, on-demand services delivered via smartphone are becoming so important.</p><p>Already, if you're in New York City, you can <a href="https://www.uber.com/">Uber</a> (on-demand car service) yourself to the airport, <a href="https://now.ebay.com/">eBay Now</a> laundry detergent from Target, <a href="http://www.jetsetter.com/">Jetsetter Tonight</a>&nbsp;yourself a quick weekend getaway and even <a href="https://www.zeel.com/">Zeel</a> yourself a massage at 10pm before you go to bed.</p><h2>What A Local-Commerce-Enabled World Would Look Like</h2><p>Soon enough, location-based platforms will enable us to Uber (or <a href="http://www.seamless.com/">Seamless</a>) a pizza from our favorite Joe's Pizza to enjoy while having a picnic in the park. While you're munching your slice of Joe's in the park, perhaps you might want to simultaneously Zeel yourself a massage too?</p><p>Better yet, how about <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/02/13/happy-valentines-day-top-dating-apps-for-iphone-ipad-and-android">OkCupid/Match Mobile-ing</a> yourself a date with the gal/guy sitting on the bench across from you? If that works out, you may not need that Zeel after all, and you might want to extend the date and <a href="http://www.olo.com/">OLO</a> (mobile payments/ordering) "<a href="http://www.groupon.com/">Groupon</a>-discounted" theater tickets to a Broadway show. (If nothing else, Groupon CEO <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/02/28/andrew-masons-fired-groupon-ceo">Andrew Mason</a> did a phenomenal job making it OK to use a coupon on a first date.)</p><p>There will eventually be an Uber for everything local. Consumers will be able to Uber a plumber, Uber a place to live (<a href="http://www.airbnb.com">Airbnb </a>or <a href="http://www.zillow.com">Zillow </a>style), Uber a <a href="http://www.zocdoc.com/">ZocDoc</a>, Uber a hairdresser, the list goes on... But all that's only the beginning. Here are four more inevitabilities brought to you by local commerce:</p><p><strong>1. Paper becomes obsolete - except maybe toilet paper.&nbsp;</strong>The United States Postal Service will also become obsolete - or end up as Amazon's express delivery unit. The telephone companies, traditional print media and direct-mail companies will have no choice but to go green and stop publishing/delivering their printed directories and circulars. Without the USPS, paper checks will also become obsolete.</p><p><strong>(See also </strong><strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/search?keyword=paperless">ReadWrite's coverage of paperless technology</a>.</strong><strong>)</strong></p><p><strong>2. The arrival of self-service, location-based, deals-on-demand. &nbsp;</strong>In the same way food trucks now use Twitter as a mobile coupon platform, local small businesses like Joe's Pizza will finally adopt Groupon Now's self-service vision. Joe will be able to promote deals to sell off the rest of his pepperoni slices at 3pm when the restaurant is empty. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, etc. will launch (or acquire) self-service, location-based "Deals-on-Demand" direct marketing/couponing platforms.</p><p><strong>(See also </strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/04/22/5-reasons-foursquare-lost-the-social-local-mobile-revolution"><strong>5 Reasons Foursquare Is Losing The Social Local Mobile Revolution.</strong></a><strong>)</strong></p><p><strong>3. Brick-and-mortar retailers become showrooms.&nbsp;</strong>Traditional physical retailers will jump on the local commerce bandwagon and embrace the role of showrooms for online and mobile purchases, or they will go out of business. Retail chains, together with startups like <a href="https://www.shoprunner.com/non_member/home/">ShopRunner</a> as well as some of the e-commerce giants will begin to make the model work for local retailers. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_200689010_findlocker?nodeId=201117850">Amazon Locker</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/shopping/express/about/">Google's Shopping Express</a> and <a href="https://www.bufferbox.com/">BufferBox</a> will get real showrooms where customers can see and scan items for next day delivery. WalMart, eBay and others will follow suit.</p><p><strong>(See also </strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/2012/12/06/showrooming-5-ways-retailers-can-fight-back-slideshow"><strong>Showrooming: 5 Ways Retailers Can Fight Back.</strong></a><strong>)</strong></p><p><strong>4. Cash becomes obsolete.&nbsp;</strong>Consumers will (finally) be able to pay for all local products and services by waving or tapping their mobile device. Cash will slowly wither and die.</p><p><strong>(For a different opinion, see also <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/01/17/mobile-payments-cashless-utopia-is-not-coming-anytime-soon">Mobile Payments' Cashless Utopia is Not Coming Any Time Soon.</a>)</strong></p><p></p><p><em>Joe's Pizza mage courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rob-young/">Rob Young/Flickr</a>.</em></p>A true believer's bold predictions on what the evolution of local commerce could mean for today's economy.http://readwrite.com/2013/05/06/paper-bricks-cash-will-die-the-inevitable-evolution-of-local-commerce
http://readwrite.com/2013/05/06/paper-bricks-cash-will-die-the-inevitable-evolution-of-local-commerceMobileMon, 06 May 2013 07:06:00 -0700Landy Ung